Division I Women

Monmouth Beats Siena for First Victory

WEST LONG BRANCH, N.J. - Monmouth University
(1-5) women's lacrosse team earned its first win of the season with
a wire-to-wire victory over Siena (1-5), Saturday afternoon on
Kessler Field.

Monmouth jumped out to a commanding 7-1 lead in the first half,
with MU netminder Katie Donohoe (Peterborough, Ontario/Holy Cross
Secondary) keeping the Saints out off the scoreboard for the first
26 minutes of the game. Over that span freshman Marial Pierce
(Middleburg, Va./St. John's Cathlic), sophomore Meaghan Hess (Lake
Stevens, Wash./Lake Stevens) and junior Kaleigh Gibbons (Candia,
N.H./Central/RMU) scored a pair of goals each with senior Erica
Abendschoen (West Caldwell, N.J./James Caldwell) adding a goal for
the six-goal first half cushion.

"It feels great to get our first win, the scoreboard hadn't been
working in our direction over the first five games, said head coach
Denise Wescott)." We've been working hard to improve, I thought we
played well against Lafayette but didn't get the "W", so it is
always good to get a victory under your belt.

"Today was the best I've ever seen our team allow different players
do the things they do well," said Wescott. "I think our players
were very selfless today. Marial is so athletic, she reads the game
well and she's a competitor. I love having her on the field because
she'll fight for the ball, she comes up with ground balls and
creates second and third scoring opportunities for herself. Meaghan
took her defender to the goal and scored, including a couple times
on the crease roll. Katie (Donohoe) is just such a great player. We
had to remind her of how good she is after the Lafayette game. She
has confidence in herself, she's been in the cage since her first
day here which should give her confidence. The team knows how great
she is and having that support behind her is important."

After playing 13:11 of scoreless lacrosse, Peirce got the Hawks
going when she beat Saint goalie Ashley Holdridge. Pierce scored
against 1:15 later to put the Hawks up 2-0, with Abendschoen,
Gibbons and Hess combing for four more consecutive goals for a 6-0
Hawk lead. Siena's Lauren Smith broke the run with 4:08 to play but
Hess, who tallied a career-high three goals on four shots, scored
once more with 2:30 to play in the first half.

Monmouth's Allison Stathius (Delran, N.J./Delran) tallied the first
goal of the second frame to give MU a 8-1 advantage but back to
back Siena Goals from Katie Maguire and Alyssa Treanor sliced the
lead to three with 24:24 to play. Gibbons answered Treanor's goal
29 seconds later for a 9-3 Hawk lead. MU outscored Siena 3-1 late
in the second half with goals from Hess, Pierce and freshman
Michelle Gonzales ().Maguire tallied the final goal of the game at
the 1:48 mark and Monmouth would go on to win 12-5.

Donohoe finished with eight total saves, five ground balls and a
caused turnover. The two Siena goalies had six saves on the day.
Monmouth held a advantage in shots (28-18), ground balls (24-18)
and in draw controls (10-9).

Gibbons dominated with four points, six ground balls, two caused
turnovers and a draw control. Hess finished with three goals,
Pierce had three goals, four ground balls and two draw controls.
Junior defender Kelly Dalton (Ellicott City, Md./Mount DeSales) had
two of Monmouth's six caused turnovers and added two ground balls
on the day.

Maguire had three points on two goals and an assist to lead the
Saints. Three Siena players had goals in the loss.